All I can say is that the "Die Hard" franchise has been running longer than the Batman film franchise (if you exclude the films made before "Batman '89")... with the same actor in the lead role (so much for the argument of a new guy for the long run). I think it's more of a risk than it is a benefit to introduce a new Batman to a audience that is still familiar with a guy like Christian Bale who has been everyone's batman for the past 8 years. If the new guy doesn't fair well with audiences then you will have to reboot again, and that's time and money. In my opinion, it is stupid to not even approach Bale with an offer to star in the role for future films (even if it's for one or two pictures) knowing that the guy has made over $2.4 billion for you in the past. The minute a film like that fails people will be asking about that.
The Die Hard analogy doesn't work. Die Hard never closed off multiple doors. Batman has an entire expanded universe in the comics and Nolan greatly limited most of the potentials with that universe by ending TDKR in the way he did. If Bale's Batman comes back, he will be used solely for JL films and maybe will have a few appearances in John Blake/Batman films but won't be the main character. On the other hand, if they ever do more Batman movies in that continuity, John Blake will be Batman and most of the stories and interesting elements from the comics will not be possible to happen due to having an entire different character as Batman, having gotten rid of a lot of great villains (Bane, Joker, Ra's al Ghul, etc.), and the list goes on. No matter what you do with the Nolan continuity, you cannot continue doing Batman films without greatly limiting them in potential. The last thing WB will do is limit the story potential of their biggest superhero franchise.
The only way to bring Bale's Batman back to be the protagonist in future Batman films is to do an entire film whose
only purpose will be to undo everything in TDKR. WB is not going to invest millions of dollars to make a movie that will only undo another movie. Not only they got better things to do with that time but they also don't want to ruin their relationship with Nolan. How do you think Nolan will react if WB told him that they literally plan to make a movie whose only purpose for its existence is to undo the last movie? Not too well. Heck, even a lot of casual moviegoers will probably be able to realize that such movie only exists for the purpose of undoing the last one.
I think the GA won't have a problem accepting a new Batman if he is written well + acted well. It's not like having a new version of Batman with a new actor playing him within a short time is anything new. Things have been this way since the early 1990's. Most people are already used to the idea by now. Everyone had to at some point in their lives adapt to the idea of a new Batman so soon regardless of the generation they are part of. For this reason, I would say Batman is the closest superhero to reaching Bond status in that regard. Plus, Christian Bale is not attached to Batman in the same way RDJ is attached to Iron Man or how Hugh Jackman is attached to Wolverine, or not even in the same way how Christopher Reeves is attached to Superman.
On top of that, I doubt people will mind if Batman is not only acted well but is written just like the prep time Batgod in the comics. That Batman will be a win with the audience IMO. The average moviegoer is not going to sit in theatres and say "What? They replaced Christian Bale with a Batman with awesome martial arts skills who is a detective genius and just took down a bunch of aliens by himself and made the alien leader his *****? This sucks!"
You're also doing the mistake of asking "What if" questions. There is no room for those questions. WB threw the chance of asking that question out the window from the second they decided to do a shared universe. A DC universe on the big screen is a big risk but like Marvel's universe was but the bigger the risks are, the higher the potential is.
If you waste time asking "What if the new Batman fails?", that is exactly what will happen because you will not be fully focused on creating a new Batman due to stress. The question WB should be asking themselves is "How can we reboot Batman successfully?" All successful comic book movies - Iron Man, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, etc. - they succeeded because the people behind them asked themselves "How can we..." questions as opposed to "What if...." questions. Many films with the "What if we fail mentality" end up failing. Superman Returns and Green Lantern were fails because of that exact mentality.
The Batman of the Dark Knight, with his batwing and exoskeleton technology, is the best fit for the Justice League.
I disagree. The genius Batman of the comics (AKA the "Batgod" for lack of better term) is the best fit for the Justice League. Batman's intelligence has always been the thing that made Batman able to stand next to Superman.
